Aspiring Heroes of Faerûn

"Sleeping in a tree might work. Better to be a little uncomfortable than deal with wolves." We need to buy a tent when we get back to civilization.

Vesper will take second watch.

(Chrys will take 3rd watch. Perception: 20)

"Trees?  That's a bridge too far fer a dwarf like me ta cross," Chrys complains, looking up briefly at the branches overhead before getting back to work.  As she finishes setting up her tent, she notices Vesper eying it with a look of envy.  Shaking her head, she shrugs her shoulders.  "I told ya we all shoulda gotten one," she says, an amused grin on her face.  "Don't worry, though, we can take turns sharin'.  'Sides, I got my bedroll tonight, an' I don't like bein' in tents when there are hungry wolves about, even when I'm nappin'."

She makes a comfortable spot by the fire with her bedroll and nods to the others, preparing for what will hopefully be a restful sleep.

Lumen looks for some fallen branches and leafy twigs to try to fashion some kind of platform or hammock between a few branches on one of the better trees above them. If he’s lucky he’ll make a few. For sleeping and keeping watch.

There are plenty of branches and boughs that can be cut, certainly enough for Lumen to fashion a makeshift hammock that sits low between two of the trees. (Does anyone have an axe or saw?) It looks like a difficult task to rig up hammocks that will allow you  all to sleep higher up in the trees, but you can try. Let’s call that a skill challenge. Describe what you do and give me 5 survival rolls.

The already dim light begins to get even darker as twilight descends upon the forest, especially under the thick canopy. As you’re preparing your camp and eating dinner by the fire, you can hear the continued howls getting closer. At one point, you see a pair of canine eyes reflecting in the flames about 40 feet away in the tight trees. Then another.., and another... and you suddenly realize that you’re surrounded by wolves; five of them total.

Initiative time!

Initiative: 2

Kess draws Moonpetal and one of her scimitars.

Initiative: 9

Chrys initiative: 12

Vesper:11

Lumen tries to find some stout branches on the trees above, about 10-20 feet up, and climbs up with some stronger sticks and branches to lay them in a triangle across two of the stout branches. He then tries to lay down some softer leafy foliage branches and twigs across the triangular openings.

He has a few daggers, and would take any help offered by the group in equipment or assistance.

Survival (adv): 13
Survival (adv): 20
Survival (adv): 15
Survival (adv): 20
Survival (adv): 22

Initiative: 11

Lumen seems to be making progress rigging up a small platform, although with the layout of the tree branches, the best he can do is configure a small hammock, platform that will hold one person, maybe two. Unfortunately, his work is interrupted by the arrival of the wolves the quickly surround the camp, seemingly out of nowhere. 

He's quick to descend and readies himself for battle with surprising speed, while everyone else seem to be caught slightly off guard by this sudden incursion. However, as prepared as he is, he doesn't see the two other wolves that come bounding out of the trees into camp; no-one did. While the five sets of eyes hold at the perimeter, a sixth wolf charges forwards towards Chrys, followed by an even bigger, dire wolf that stands considerably larger than its smaller kin. Chrysoberyl suddenly finds herself on the sharp end of two sets of snarling maws and bared jaws. Attack: 21 Damage: 6, and Attack: 12 Damage: 6.

Despite taking a vicious and bloody bite from the smaller wolf, Chrys manages to ward off the larger wolf with deft shield work. (Need DC11 STR save or be prone

Initiative Order

1. Lumen
2. Wolf 1 (In trees. 40' away)
3. Wolf 2 (In trees, 40' away)
4. Wolf 3 (in trees, 40' away)
5. Vesper
6. Chrys
7. Wolf 4 (In trees, 40' away)
8. Kess
9. Wolf 5 (In trees, 40' away)
10. Wolf 6 (Attacking Chrys)
11. Dire Wolf (Attacking Chrys)
12. Nym

Ok, Lumen is up.

Lumen inspires Chrys with a wolf howl of his own, to steel the spine and lessen the fear of the wolves.

(This can be used normally, or also as combat inspiration: A creature that has a Bardic Inspiration die from you can roll that die and add the number rolled to a weapon damage roll it just made. Alternatively, when an attack roll is made against the creature, it can use its reaction to roll the Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to its AC against that attack, after seeing the roll but before knowing whether it hits or misses.)

The bard looks up at the wolves and whirls his hands in a spiral and then flings them out, sandy dust seeming to appear in a cloud out of nowhere, casting sleep at second level, trying to get as many wolves as possible in it.

39 hp worth of wolves then fall asleep

Strength save. 21

"Is e'ry damned thing in this forest supersized?" Chrys yells as she knocks the smaller wolf away.

With her feet planted firmly, Chrys pushes back hard against the wolf and remains upright. After letting out his own wolf call as inspiration for his dwarven friend, Lumen flings forth a handful of sand towards the trees and speaks a quick phrase, and you watch as three of the wolves drop yo the ground in a magical slumber. That’s the best he could hope for, with the pack being spread out around them.

Immediately after, one of the other wolves bounds into the camp and joins the other two, in mad pack frenzy as they try to rip apart the dwarf, who they apparently regard as the dominant prey.

Attack: 20 Damage: 6

Heres the current Initiative order:

Initiative Order (Red= sleeping)

1. Lumen
2. Wolf 1 (In trees. 40' away)
3. Wolf 2 (Attacking Chrys)
4. Wolf 3 (in trees, 40' away)
5. Vesper
6. Chrys
7. Wolf 4 (In trees, 40' away)
8. Kess
9. Wolf 5 (In trees, 40' away) 
10. Wolf 6 (Attacking Chrys)
11. Dire Wolf (Attacking Chrys)
12. Nym

Need another DC11 STR save from Chrys.

Vesper and Chrys are up. 

Strength save: 17

"Tch!" Chrys grunts as the wolves tear into her, still standing firm.

Vesper tosses a Fire Bolt at Wolf 4!

Attack: 6 Damage: 5

In the extremely heightened commotion and raucous noise of the wolf attack, Vesper has trouble nailing down a precise aim. Her arcane attack feels rushed, and she watches the fire bolt sail into the forest without hitting a target.

Chrys's turn.

Chrys rounds on the smaller of the wolves (Wolf no. 2), and swings her hammer at it, trying to thin the pack.

Attack: 10

Unfortunately, there are so many harrying her that she can't quite aim properly.  "Damn wolves!" she yells as her hammer swings through the air.  "Get offa me, ya fleabags!"

(If I guessed wrong and it hit, she would have done 13 bludgeoning damage)

Chrys struggles to stay on her feet and defend herself from the trio of vicious wolves, already bloodied and battered, but she is unable to land an effective attack.  

Another one of the wolves (#4) comes leaping into the fray, bounding into your campsite with bristled fur, howling with a frightful high pitched growl. This one launches itself at Nym, trying to take her down and rip into her with its powerful jaws. Attack: 7 Damage: 10.

Fortunately, Nym is ready for the attack, and she gets her forearm up into a defensive position. The wolf's teeth are unable to penetrate the metal strips on her armor, and so she manages to avoid injury. 

Kess is up.

Kess cringes at watching Vesper's cantrip go wide; while it was certainly not the sorceress' fault, there was now a very real possibility that a fire had been started nearby. Gods only knew what kind of attention that could bring; hopefully, that wasn't the case. The party would likely have to deal with that after taking care of this...

As quick as she could in the seconds she had, however, Kess began forming a plan. Thanks to Lumen's quick thinking, a fair number of the pack had been placed into a magical slumber by the half-orc, making it much easier to handle the nearby foes. Given that poor Chrys seemed swarmed, that made the decision fairly easy to make.

Leaping down and swiftly sprinting over, Kess brought Moonpetal up for a thrust as it became coated in violet sparks, stabbing in at the larger of the two wolves as she casts Violet-Flame Blade; the sparks wouldn't bother the dire wolf itself, however, but instead leapt over at one of the smaller nearby wolves and igniting into purple flames:

Attack: 21, Damage to Dire Wolf: 13, Damage to the nearby Wolf: 3

Hit or miss on the first attack, she'd follow up the thrust with a low diagonal slash from one of her scimitars behind it, looking to catch the massive beast on the snout or the flank:

Attack: 14, Damage: 6

And with that, she'd use that opening to try and get back-to-back with Chrys, hoping to protect her dwarven friend from being swarmed by the pack.

Attacking with well-practiced martial instinct, Kess whips forth her two blades and lays a swift assault against the dire wolf that’s treating her friend. Being her first time swinging the ancient elvish blade in combat, she’s not quite used to the slight difference in balance between it and her familiar scimitar, and it’s enough to affect her precision. She fails to land an affective slice against the beast, but she instantly realizes how she must compensate next time.

Her second since cuts deeply into the dire wolf’s flanks, and draws a thin, but pronounced gash into its backside. 

Feeling the pain of elvish steel, the dire wolf suddenly turns to face her, and Kess instantly seek just how large and menacing this alpha creature is. With blood already in its jaws, it snaps at the elf with a vicious bark, and a look of terrible aggression in its eyes.

Attack: 18 Damage: 14 

Just behind it, the smaller, but equally aggressive wolf snaps once again at Chrys, obviously driven by the frenzy of blood and battle.

Attack: 16 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.

 Kess must make a DC11 STR save or be knocked prone.

Nym is up.